User perceptions and practical considerations for implementation of advanced sanitation technologies: a case study of the nano membrane toilet from Kumasi, Ghana

In response to the growing need for sustainable urban sanitation, technologies are being developed that will be completely novel to their target context. The successful adoption of such technologies will be dependent on their acceptability to end users and their adaptability to local settings. As part of the development of the Nano Membrane toilet, a design team conducted a field study in Kumasi, Ghana, to gauge acceptability of the design and to assess the perceived value of the designed outputs of the toilet. In addition, a physical survey was conducted of the residences of the interviews. Overall, the surveys provided information about site-specific attitudes and physical limitations which would need to be considered by designers. These types of survey can be used by technology developers to assist design or to identify areas that are appropriate for their technology. Conversely, similar surveys could be used as a community assessment tool to identify technologies that are best adapted for a specific circumstance

User perspectives to direct water reuse from the Nano Membrane toilet

The Nano Membrane toilet is a response to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ‘Re-invent the Toilet Challenge’. The Nano Membrane toilet has many design aspects that will involve interaction by the end-user, including water reuse from the membrane treatment system which produces treated water directly available to the user at household level. In order to maintain a user focused design development, a survey was carried out on potential end users in Kumasi, Ghana, in order to understand their attitudes to direct reuse of water from the toilet, and how the attitudes may be affected by aesthetic changes to the water. It was found that end users would be willing to use the product water for a wide range of household purposes, with cleaning being the most likely. Odour was found to have the greatest effect over taste and colour on user’s willingness for all potential purposes, including drinking, cooking, and teeth cleaning

Context-specific validation and introduction of technologies for sustainable WASH services

Using the most suitable technology is a key pillar to achieve sustainable WASH service delivery. Too often these services fail because chosen technologies do not sufficiently fit in the institutional, economic/financial, social, environmental and technical context. The result is low functionality of the WASH technologies. The WASHTech project in Uganda, Ghana and Burkina Faso did technology reviews, conducted action-research and developed a context-specific tool to validate potential WASH technologies, Technology Applicability Framework. And the project developed Technology Introduction Process Guide. These processes involve participation of various sector stakeholders including the technology producers. These tools and processes have a promise to significantly contribute to a more systematic technology approval and introduction process, which would lead to better uptake of validated WASH technologies contributing to more sustainable services

Social and economic factors influencing the choice of water supply in rural Karnataka, India

India is an enormously diverse country, although the challenges of water scarcity and quality are almost ubiquitous. This paper focuses on two villages in Karnataka state where a mixed methods qualitative research approach was applied. This revealed that decision - making about water supplies was made in a top-down fashion and there was little opportunity for village members to contribute. The policies and tariff systems were extremely complex. Communities had their own social and religious beliefs about their water supplies as well. Together these may be contributing to their rejection of the government supplied water and their use of alternative, often unimproved sources and of water filters in their houses. These decisions and the reasons behind them will be further explored in an additional fieldwork campaign

Emotional wellbeing as a proxy indicator for water security among pastoralists in Afar, Ethiopia

Recent thinking proposes a more holistic approach to measuring household water security. In addition to conventional service-level based indicators, assessments should account for broader social, political and cultural structures which shape how households interact with water. Contributing to this agenda, the paper introduces new research that aims to evaluate the relationship between emotional wellbeing and water security among pastoralists in the Afar region of Ethiopia. It is hypothesised that the measurement of emotion could have potential value as an indicator of water security among vulnerable populations who have particularly complex water use patterns that are poorly captured by conventional indicators. Within the pastoralist context, preliminary data collection has indicated an emotional response to seasonality in resource availability and distance travelled to infrastructure points. Further research is underway to explore the complexity of emotion and its interrelation with water security to better understanding the needs of pastoralists in Afar

Testing decentralised treatment solutions for portable home toilet waste - Kumasi, Ghana

Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) and Unilever have developed Clean Team, a business providing portable home toilets that are attractive and branded. Customers pay for their waste to be collected two to four times per week. Three “off-the-shelf” technologies are being tested to treat this waste and allow Clean Team to scale up to other cities. The three technologies are Sistema Biobolsa, which uses flexible tubes as anaerobic digesters, and aerobic planted gravel filter; Biorock, where an anaerobic pre-treatment tank is followed by an aerobic tank containing synthetic filtration media, pretreated with enzymes that stimulate the growth of aerobic bacteria and ventilation executed by natural draft; and Biofil, which will receive the sludge from the Biorock system, and digest it using macrofauna. The paper will present the initial trial results

A novel, high-rate, anaerobic digester to treat high-solids waste ensuring reuse and good sanitation planning

A consortium of UK universities is working on developing a novel anaerobic digester that will treat pit latrine waste and transform it into a safe and valuable product. Physico-chemical characteristics of fresh human waste and pit latrine sludge are being determined. This is informing the development of a bioreactor containing biofilms, or slimes, of several microbial ‘trophic’ groups growing preferentially on distinct surfaces and materials. The ecologically-engineered bioreactor design will optimise the efficiency of the treatment and underpin successful digestion of high-solids waste. The potential use of the digestate will be reused in agriculture to recycle nutrients and prevent environmental, and watercourse pollution. Attitudes to sanitation, as well as to resource recovery from, and reuse of, waste, are being investigated so the participatory sanitation planning process can work effectively

Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Porous Carbon–Titania and Highly Crystalline Titania Nanostructures

Porous carbon–titania and highly crystalline titania nanostructured materials were obtained through a microwave-assisted one-pot synthesis. Resorcinol and formaldehyde were used as carbon precursors, triblock copolymer Pluronic F127 as a stabilizing agent, and titanium isopropoxide as a titania precursor. This microwave-assisted one-pot synthesis involved formation of carbon spheres according to the recently modified Stöber method followed by hydrolysis and condensation of titania precursor. This method afforded carbon–titania composite materials containing anatase phase with specific surface areas as high as 390 m² g^–1. The pure nanostructured titania, obtained after removal of carbon through calcination of the composite material in air, was shown to be the anatase phase with considerably higher degree of crystallinity and the specific surface area as high as 130 m² g^–1. The resulting titania, because of its high surface area, well-developed porosity, and high crystallinity, is of great interest for catalysis, water treatment, lithium batteries, and other energy-related applications

Evaluating the efficiency of different provision strategies for scaled-up container-based sanitation

This record includes an extended abstract and MP4 presentation. Presented at the 42nd WEDC International Conference

How does inequitable planning and community resistance affect aspirations of universal sanitation services? A case study in Mzuzu, Malawi

This record includes an extended abstract and MP4 presentation. Presented at the 42nd WEDC International Conference